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Lord Terence-Smith Ashcroft
This handsome and finely-bred man, a pillar of society in Darkness Falls and a beacon of hope to many of our city's disenfranchised is one of the greatest black paladins that The Dread has ever given birth to. He is our topmost Southern Rose adversary. Ashcroft does not sit on the uppermosr throne of the Southern Rose but runs in that circle. He weaves plots within plots within plots, his eyes always on the grand prize of cutting away the bonds that imprison the Petaled Lady. If he succeeds, then he would indeed sit on a golden throne, rule the Americas with a steel fist, and twist the landscape into a putrid mire of blood and entrails. He knows this because The Petaled Lady has told him so. Background Ashcroft was born the only child to Madaline Ashcroft in Windsor, United Kingdom, in 1970. There is no record of his father because demonic entities (or powerful negative energies claiming to be demonic entities) aren't know for their impeccable record keeping skills. Madeline Ashcroft, a direct descendant of those Ashcroft that escaped the Great Fire of London, never subjected her childh to the formal education that public schools would provide him. Rather, as soon as he was capable of comprehending the world around him at age four, turned her son--whom she lovingly refered to as her Dark Seraph--over to a succession of tutors whom instructed him in languages, arts and sciences, Necromancy, Thaumaturgy, and Ceremonial Magick. By the time Ashcroft was twelve he was a capable and more than competent black magician, and his natural chrm and magnetism combined with his good looks helped forge him into a leader that not only were his peers willing to follow but actively wanted to. At fifteen years old Ashcroft began having exceptionally vivid dreams about the Petaled Lady, whom he stated would wrap him gently in her leafy tendrils and whisper his destiny to him if he would but follow her instructions. This he did willingly, starting with the ritualistic sacrifice of his mother. Obedient to the last to the Lady of his dreams he relocated to Darkness Falls with what little savings and inheritance he had and joined the Southern Rose chapter-house there. Taking a year to learn computer languages and prgramming he took a meager job as an IT specialist. He was a hard and dilligent worker, described by his co-workers as quiet but exceedingly easy to get along with. By night he devoted himself exclusively to the tasks assigned to him by the Southern Rose High Priest of the chapter-house and committed atrocities and fulfilled sexual appetites that would make Caligula blush. Over a slow period of time he gained more and more attention as a leader in the chapter-house so that by age 18 he had deposed the ruling high priest and taken the title for himself. Still acting on the murmurs and whispers directed at him from the Petaled Lady each night, his next step was the conquest of his place of employment, Digicorp. His attention to detail and superlative work ethic had him climbing the corporate ladder at a meteoric pace. By the time he reached twenty-five years old he was the vice-president, and by the time he was thirty he had earned enough prestige and personal funds to enable him to purchase the company. He took Digicorp public and within two years had earned millions by making the company multi-national. When he was thirty-two years old he sold Digicorp to rival compny Jencorp for a then wopping sum of three hundred million dollars. Now independently wealthy, Ashcroft broadened his horizons with altruism. Already known as a corporate genius he now began to shed funding into countless charities and relief organizations, shoring up his reputation as a pillar of society. He continued to grow and stabilize his personal wealth by locating start-up companies, investing in and purchasing them, and then selling them for enormous sums when the start-ups began to show positive revenue streams. Eager to move his power base beyond just the Southern Rose, he adopted the moniker of Lord Equinox and recruited foot soldiers from the street gang Mesa Devils in a bid to join the Cosmic criminal organization called The Advent. When two of his grandois schemes were foiled, both times by the Cosmic organizations called Heroes Unlimited, he gave the whole venture up and focused his time and energy on the needs and machinations of the Southern Rose. Today, Ashcroft has power. He has power among the wealthy and affluent, he has power among the celebrities and politicians, and he has power among the poor and downtrodden. Most importantly, he has power in the Southern Rose. He will still ocassionally don the mask and cowl of 'Lord Equinox' and send out his Mesa Devil troops for some criminal activity, but usually only does so in order to defelect any unwanted attention away from the cult. Every night, as he gently falls asleep, he pays careful attention to the whispering from the shadows and plots his next scheme in accordance with her beloved dark goddess' desire. Scope & Modality Ashcroft is the sole figurehead and leader of the Southern Rose cult within Darkness Falls, controlling the cult's actions and endeavors through a variety of front companies, chamelion-like identity changes, and Mesa Devil activity. He is something of a bogeyman in the occult society of Darkness Falls, having a name but no face to attach to it; nine of ten times his operatives remain blissfully unaware that they are even working for him. There is one popular story milling about that tells of one young Mesa Devil whom called "the boss" the Kaiser Soyzyeh of magic. Everyone got a good laugh and went home, and when they returned found the jokester hung from the wall crucifiction style, disemboweled, and the phrase 'Ha ha I laughed, too!" painted in blood on the walls. We know who he is and wat he does, society does not and revealing him to the world has proven so far to be nigh-impossible. Ashcroft is a genius in obfuscation and misdirection. Though he does not know anything about the Darklight Society, repeated runins with us and patterns he has noticed has alerted him to the fact that some clandestine organization moves against him. He currently believes it to be the Gaslight Society. We need to be exceptionally careful and guarded when engaging this monster's plans, lest we slip up and lay ourselves bare to him or give him justification to openly attack the Gaslighters. Ashcroft is an exceptionally powerful black magician in the arena of Necromancy, Ceremonial Magick, and Thaumaturgy. He speaks seven languages fluently and has contacts within all strata of society, there are many powerful men who owe him favors and are on his payroll. He enjoys fishing and sport hunting as hobbies, is well-versed in many arts and sciences, and on top of all this has the resources of the Southern Rose to draw upon when needed. All agents are strongly cautioned against ever engaging this man alone. Taking apart a plot that Ashcroft has set into motion would require a lot of cerebral work, stay within your cabal. For unspecified reasons, he should never be allowed to become aware of the existence of Anna Ashcroft. That is all.